FOR THOSE WHO LIVE UNDER A ROCK…
In the early days of the Bitcoin blockchain, it was mostly traded between hackers and enthusiasts, but fast-forwarding several years has its value skyrocket to several thousand dollars. This growth served to bring in many users to the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency world in the 2010s — reports place the number of individuals who use Bitcoin between 7 and 12 million (according to the number of Bitcoin wallets in use, 20 million).
This wasn’t an entirely good thing — the Bitcoin network can only take a certain number of transactions at a time. In 2017, transaction times and fees reached unacceptable levels. This caused a “hard fork” — a completely separate blockchain that users moved to. This fork is called Bitcoin Cash.
THE *TRUE* BITCOIN?
A heated debate is currently taking place on whether Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash is the fork true to the spirit of the Satoshi Whitepaper. SSF doesn’t pick sides in this battle, as both are perfectly valid for use. However, Ulex contract infrastructure may find it easy and expedient to program Bitcoin Cash staking into Ulex, which is why we’re giving BCH some attention today!
More lately, the BCH network has been deciding whether or not to implement a change that would allow for integration with decision-based transaction systems such as smart contracts and decentralized applications.
WHY BITCOIN CASH?
In our cursory examinations of under-served legal markets, we notice that many of those who do not have access to justice are those on the lower end of the income scale. People of this demographic often do not have the time or resources to dedicate to protracted legal hearings, and that’s a part of what Ulex is attempting to fix.
A subset of these persons is online freelancers in developing countries. These persons use their skills and time to create, edit, design and modify products and content in a way that is beneficial to all concerned. However, many such arrangements fall through, leaving the freelancer short of compensation and with wasted hours that are no longer billable.
Also worth noting is that these enterprising contractors take compensation in cryptocurrency, as fiat transactions underlie strict control in many countries. They also take small amounts (think Fiverr) which get eaten up by transaction costs on less nimble blockchains (e.g. BTC).
What the Ulex community has decided to undertake as a possible solution is the coding of cryptocurrency staking mechanisms into the Ulex system, the first of which would be Bitcoin Cash — a speedy, simple and low-cost currency to experiment with, like Bitcoin was in its inception.
SMART CONTRACTS DO THAT, WHY BOTHER WITH ULEX?
Ulex will be a turnkey legal solution in the way that smart contracts will be shelf-ready on the platform. This means that instead of drawing up contracts on paper (or programming them in Solidity or a similar language), users will be able to choose from one of many user-submitted templates that will be submitted.
For contributors to do so, the platform must allow for Bitcoin Cash transactions. This makes things more streamlined for the user, who won’t have to know anything about programming, law, or cryptocurrencies to make their contracts work.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE USER AND DEVELOPER?
A quick reminder that the platform is programmed on Holochain — in the same way that people can create websites with tools like Squarespace, people can contribute to Ulex branches, one of which may allow users to create and use contracts that get rated and commented on in a contract marketspace.
This allows for a fully transparent and modular digital legal system that can work with any jurisdiction, any operating system, any currency, and all day.
TOO LONG DIDN’T READ
Bitcoin cash is like bitcoin from 2008: quick, anonymous, and simple. It just isn’t worth as much.
Because of this, BCH is ideal for small transactions — which are often made by freelancers with no access to justice.
Ulex can serve as a way to create contracts and dispute resolution for just such persons.
Law is going international. Be ahead of the curve.